This is not a joke, but rather, the face of an agented intelligence capable of manupulating social frameworks instead of passive-aggressively reacting to them. Of course, for the passive, unagented victims, this is ‘really funny’.

This idea is not a joke, however, and a studio or director could, quite easily, utilize this ploy to put an end to … any of a number of hideous evils such as fracking, environmental devastation, sex slavery, or police brutality.

The goal would not be ‘gun control’ is a relatively absurd fantasy. What we need is intelligent personal and communal culture. We could start with intelligent education, humane police, universal health care (not insurance), and something better than our present ‘this is not a government’.

It would extend to become the ongoing participatory establishment of actually intelligent public communities, networks, and creative bodies of human agency. New ways of being human that are more like heroism than our films can portray.

In other words, the goal isn’t control, it’s establishing a culture where control is unnecessary due to mutual concern, intimacy, wisdom and intelligence.